In March 2010, President Obama signed landmark health care reform legislation into law. Over the course of the next several years, the new health care law will extend health insurance coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans and improve health insurance options and health care quality for the vast majority of Americans. The reform will not solve all the problems with our health care system. Of particular concern, some 23 million people will likely remain uninsured. Still, the reform will bring about the most important expansion of health care coverage since the enactment of Medicare 45 years ago.

This policy brief details the key coverage-related provisions of health reform, and discusses steps that direct care workers, direct care associations, and others can take to ensure that the coverage provisions of health reform are implemented in ways that work for direct care workers and employers.